A Look At: Richard Wentworth

Richard Wentworth is a still life artist interested on photographing objects he stumbles across throughout his day. He has said that he doesn't like to go out with the intention to make a photograph, but rather allowing something to speak to him to have it photographed. Though he does like stumbling across his objects to go into his still lives, he is also a sculpture artist. He does make some of his sculptures for his still life photos as well. 
I like his thought process about allowing things to speak to him instead of trying to find things to photograph. 

Exhibition: OCMA Avant Garde Collection

I recently visited the avant garde collection on exhibition at OCMA. They had a wonderful collection of pop art, assemblage, video and light and space art works. The most interesting section to me was the light and space pieces. They caused me to slow down and really think about what I was looking at. My favorite piece was one by Doug Wheeler. It was a light and space piece and took up a room all its own. Untitled, 1968 was a square room with walls and ceiling all painted white, with a large square light box omitting a white light on one wall. You were invited to enter into the space, and it was a unique experience to be able to physically enter into this work of art; it felt like being in another world. The museum did a great job showcasing key pieces that really showcase the avant garde genre. 

Exhibition: Minor White

Minor White: Manifestations of the Spirit, being shown at the Getty was a beautiful retrospective of his work. The large gallery space showcased work form his early, mid, and late career. His interest in taking the spiritual invisible things and making them visible in his images is executed through the poetic way that he captures metaphors in his imagery. He had a wide range of subject matter from landscapes to portraits of his students and models. 
His beautiful silver gelatin prints add richness and depth to his prints. Each one of his works is poetic and and symbolic. He uses his life experiences to fill each photograph with meaning.

Snow on Garage Door, Rochester, New York 1960

A Look At: Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. Wenders became interested in film while working as an engraver for Johnny Friedlaender (German, 1912–1992) in France. He moved back to Germany and began working for United Artists, and then enrolled at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film in Munich from 1967 to 1970. Wenders has also exhibited photographs since the 1980s. These works come from his travels and his location-scouting for films. He has had his work shown at many galleries and museums throughout his career. Between 1986 and 1992, his show, Written in the West, toured throughout Europe and Miami. The show included a collection of photography from his time location-scouting for Paris, Texas in 1983. Wim Wenders Photographs, a collection of his personal photographs, was exhibited around the world from 1989 to 1994. He then exhibited Landscape and Memory at the Gallery of Contemporary Photography in Santa Monica in 1996. 
The dynamic color add life into his landscapes. The different ranges of color from monochromatic to natural colors add a mood to each of his photographs. He takes these film locations and turns them into beautiful artworks in themselves. 


'Blue Range,' Butte, Montana, 2000


'Lizard Rock', South Australia, 1988


"Boy at Bat", Havana, 1998

A Look At: Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) was a photographer best known for his picturesque photographs of Yosemite National Park. Adams began taking pictures at a young age in 1916. He made a living teaching piano lessons until 1930, and his position as a custodian in Yosemite National Park from 1920 until 1927 enabled Adams to photograph the striking landscape during expeditions. In 1927, he published his first portfolio of work, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, and in 1930 released his first illustrated book,Taos pueblo. Adams’ photographs were featured in a 1936 exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, An American Place, and in 1940, he contributed to the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Photography and co-curated the inaugural exhibit. Among his other achievements, Adams formed the Department of Photography at the California School of Fine Arts (currently the San Francisco Art Institute), and was among the founders of the Friends of Photogaphy in 1966.
His work is so memorialized because of is beautiful black and white prints. His modernist style allows him to showcase the landscapes beauty. 

Clearing Winter Storm Yosemite National Park California, 

1944

Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, 

1927

Untitled

A Look At: Sally Mann

"Few photographers of any time or place have matched Sally Mann's steadiness of simple eyesight, her serene technical brilliance, and the clearly communicated eloquence she derives from her subjects, human and otherwise - subjects observed with an ardor that is all but indistinguishable from love." -Renolds Price, Time
Sally Mann is an American photographer, best known for her large black-and-white photographs—at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death. Living in Virginia, she is best known for the photograph series of her three young children.
Her black and white photographs are unique in her subject matter. It is a blend of documentary style and stylized. Because they are her own children in their own setting of where they group up, there is a comfortability that the children have in the pictures. Still Mann uses her children to say something about childhood. She also focuses on other subject matter such as death and decay, shooting actual decaying carcasses. But the lighting in all of her pieces is dramatic and sets the specific mood she is trying to accomplish.


Jessie in the Wind, 1989


Candy Cigarette, 1989


Untitled, At Twelve Series (Juliet in the Chair)

A Look At: Jeff Wall

Canadian artist Jeff Wall, is known for his photography work and even writings in art history. His work has been widely recognized, especially in North America, where he has received numerous awards – including the Hasselblad Award, in 2002, and the Audian Prize for Lifetime Achievement, in 2008, – distinctions – including being made a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in 2006, and being named an Officer of the Order of Canada, in 2007, – at MOMA, SFMOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and TATE Modern. 
He works a lot in the narrative or tableaux style of photography, where he creates stunning and impactful images. The scenes he sets up are either dynamic and filled with action or grounded giving a pause to the setting. His lighting also adds to the way he wants to portray a narrative in his photographs, giving it the right mood. 


Boxer, 2011


Pawn Shop, 2009
Volunteer, 1996